Hello:

If this election winds up being based upon a "he said - she said" kind of thing, we're going to elect the wrong guy - no matter WHO your guy is. Don't buy into it. They're BOTH saying crap? What?? Your guy ain't? Well they are.

What about the DOUBLING of the deficit on Sunday?? Isn't that a bit more important? What about NO strategy for winning in Afghanistan? What about winning in Iraq and NOT leaving?? I thought when you won, you left. If you can't leave, then I don't think you won.

excon

Well said, Ex. Hopefully everyone will pay as much attention to the debates as they are paying to the tabloid headlines.

How can the government use OUR money bail out failing companies? I don't remember getting a dividends check from Fanny or Freddie when they were doing well.

Agree Ex

Bristol Palin's pregnancy, lipstick on a pig, Oprah, etc...

A gov. run by special interests, lobbyists, and corporations, leaving the everyday taxpaying worker out of the loop, and this is the discussion?

excon-

Neither of the major candidates vying for the presidency were my first choice. I'm a registered Independent. My opinion of politics and politicians in general are pretty much in line with the late George Carlin. In fact there was a 10 year period of my life that I completely took a hiatus from all politics. I recognize that all candidates have select issue flaws. Now I do think Barack Obama is the more level headed, clearer thinking candidate, as opposed to his opponent, John McCain. I'm choosing Obama in this election because McCain supported Dubya's tactical decision to send American troops into Iraq and for wanting to shove more of Herbert and Dubya's failed economic policies down my throat. Otherwise I could had flipped a coin.

If you can't leave, then I don't think you won.

That means technically we are still fighting WWII and Korea .

The trouble is that both sides think they need to immediately respond to any attack ,misstep or malaprop. What Obama should've said was "what's the difference between Cheney and Sarah Palin? lipstick ." He would've made the same point he was trying to make and it would not have been subject to interpretation.

Now everyone is bemoaning the tone of the campaign and forgetting the thing I have frequently pointed out... that nothing has changed at all. I can trace this type of campaign style and tactics since the founding ;and the smears were even worse then. What we are witnessing here is a good ole fashion American political campaign.

http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/opinion/walthandelsman/blog/Field-Dress.gif

What about the DOUBLING of the deficit on Sunday??

Not quite because no one envisions a complete collapse of the two institutions that were effectively added to the public trust. But we could be looking at a trillion dollars of obligations over this .
IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Will Growing Number Of Bailouts Make Economic Problems Worse? (http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=305936617669604)

This is a bit more than "he said - she said" ex. What's happening to Sarah Palin is remarkable in scope. In less than two weeks her pregnant daughter has been an issue, her Down’s child has been an issue, her parenting skills, intelligence, experience, qualifications and faith have all been attacked. She’s been accused of firing a librarian, banning books, having an affair, being mean to animals, having a drunk driving husband and been called “Geritol” for McCain... all in the mainstream media and not some blog. And then, the Democrats have the chutzpah to ask why we aren’t talking about the issues?

And the attacks keep coming, the latest is Palin’s “soldier son Track was involved as an unidentified vandal (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/09/11/newest-palin-attack-son-vandalized-busses-forced-join-military-n) of Wasilla school buses in 2005” and “that he was somehow "forced" to join” the military to avoid prosecution.

"South Carolina's Democratic Party chairwoman said Wednesday that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's top qualification seems to be not having had an abortion (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jOh4XKLWV4JBMaKUUAD8jui6nhtAD9346JRG0)."

Former Time Columnist Unveils New Obama Spokesman: Buckwheat (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2008/09/11/former-time-columnist-unveils-new-obama-spokesman-buckwheat)


For many years, Jack E. White worked for Time magazine, and as a Time columnist in the 1990s, he routinely accused conservatives and Republicans of race-baiting, or simply being racist. In an article Wednesday on TheRoot.com, an online black magazine started earlier this year by The Washington Post, White attacked John McCain for unveiling what he described as this year’s Willie Horton ad and this year’s Harold Ford "call me" ad. By noting Obama supported sex education for kindergarteners in Illinois in 2003, McCain is apparently not only race-baiting, but suggesting Obama’s a "child molester." But what made White’s column really stand out is he condemned Republicans (including Sarah Palin)... in the voice of Buckwheat, the fictional "Little Rascals" character:


"Well," Buckwheat continued, "I fig'ud dat I dun seen 'bout everythin' when I seen de 'publicans turn a pregnant teenajuh 'n' huh baby daddy inter 'xampuls of healthy fam'ly values."

"You mean Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol, and her boyfriend, Levi, who appeared at last week's Republican Convention" I said. "They're planning to get married."

"Yeah, dem," Buckwheat continued. "Kin you imagin' de hootin' 'n' hollerin' dem 'publicans wudder done if dat been one of Obama's kids? Dey sure wudn't have called her a chile of God!"

Matt Damon says the thought of Palin as president is " like a really bad Disney movie."


You do the actuary tables and there's a one out of three chance, if not more, that McCain doesn't survive his first term and it will be President Palin. And it really... we were talking about it earlier... it's like a really bad Disney movie. The hockey mom. "I'm just a hockey mom from Alaska." And she's the president. And it's like she's facing down Vladimir Putin and using the folksy stuff she learned at the hockey rink. It's absurd. It's totally absurd. And I don't understand why more people aren't talking about how absurd it is. It's a really terrifying possibility. The fact that we've gotten this far and we're that close to this being a reality is crazy, crazy.

The MTV Awards host didn't even get to use his worst 'joke,' he wanted to say Palin would have her daughter executed because "as a Republican she is pro-execution so she is going to give her the electric chair for being a little slut (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2774919/Russell-Brand-pulled-Sarah-Palin-electric-chair-jokes-at-VMA.html)."

How in God's name are we supposed to discuss issues? Yeah both sides do it, but many of us on this side defended Obama against the sleazy rumors. Where is the left in defending Palin against this BS?

Hello again, Steve:

You should excuse me if I'm not moved. The press tore apart Obama and lots of people made really ugly statements about him and his family. No, it wasn't McCain directly - but he didn't STOP it.

So, Palin is going through the same thing. And, it's not coming from Obama directly. What else is new?

This election, apparently, is going to be decided on personality, like McCain said. Ok, Obama is a much cooler fellow than the old white haired dude.

excon

I'll be the first to admit Obama has been under the gun, but I must have missed where the press tore him apart. They've torn Hillary apart, they've torn McCain apart, they've torn Romney, Giuliani, Thompson and Huckabee apart and now they're trying to rip Palin to shreds. But Obama? Barely a scrape in the mainstream media.

Does anyone know anything about Obama beyond the information he chose to reveal in his auto-biographies ?
We've never seen his grandmother.. we did not even see her during his visit to Hawaii . His transcripts from Columbia U. are no where to be found. He evidently has no friends from those days to give testimonial . His thesis about Soviet nuclear policy is not available . No professional writing from the editor of the Harvard Law Review ? Do you believe that ? He has evidently no friends from Harvard to speak of those days. His State Senate records are MIA .It took all types of contortions to get the Annenberg Records available (after scrubbing is my guess) . As A lawyer he evidently had no clients and he published nothing as a college professor of law. He had no students who have come forward. Even his medical records are a joke brief statement of being in good health.

Geeze ;I know more about Palin in a couple of weeks than I know of Bambi .

Anyone know the difference between Obama and an empty suit?

Oh, yeah, Tom. Loved the cartoon.

Excuse me Pubs... but the color of lipstick the pig and pit bull are wearing are not important. And America has graver issues to recognize than immunization records and seeing a candidates grandmother in Hawaii.


I want to know about two items 1) Palin's tax information? 2) And I'd like to know about Palins school records... her grades? Has Palin released this information to the public? And if so please provide me the link.

I'll go search for her grades when you can provide a link to Obama's thesis or his records as a State Senator. What was Obama's GPA at Columbia ? Why won't he release that information when he is quick to point out he was Harvard Law's magna laude?

Today he visited Columbia while in NYC surely he could've gotten us copies of his records there .Where is his questionnaire for the bar exam ? I really want to read his Sr. thesis on the Ruskies .If he devoted a year researching and writing about Soviet nuclear disarmament, how could he get the facts about the Kennedy-Khrushchev meeting in Vienna so wrong?

Where are his 8 years worth of State Senate records ? Do you believe him when he said he did not maintain records for the 8 years in question ? This is a guy who wrote 2 autobiographies in that time. Did he do that all from memory also ?

He's never released any legal or billing records to verify that he only did a few hours of work for a nonprofit tied to Tony Rezko. In fact ;we don't know anything about his several clients and cases at Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Gallard .

Tom, you seem a bit edgy lately. Don't worry I won't mention that McCain graduated in the bottom one percent in his class at the Naval Academy. Oops! I just did! Sorry. Actually to be exact, he was 894th out of 899.

Obama went to Punahou High School where he admits not being a straight "A" student. At least not his senior year. Fellow students say he maintained B's. Other claim he was in the top ten percentile. Obama himself only says that his grades slipped his senior year.

Obama has not released his GPA transcripts from his college days, but we know because he had honors at Harvard approximately what kind of student he ended up being (see last paragraph). Now Obama was at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years before transferring to Columbia in 1981. According to several sites, although no one knows for certain, some claim his GPA was from the high 2's to a 3.3. In other words at that time he more than likely accumulated B's and C's.

Obama's Years at Columbia Are a Mystery - September 2, 2008 - The New York Sun (http://www.nysun.com/new-york/obamas-years-at-columbia-are-a-mystery/85015/)

"An article in a Columbia University publication, Columbia College Today, reported that Mr. Obama has portrayed Columbia as a period of buckling down following a troubled adolescence. He did not socialize much, he has said, instead spending a lot of time in the library, "like a monk." He has also stated that he was involved to some extent with the Black Students Organization.

Federal law limits the information that Columbia can release about Mr. Obama's time there. A spokesman for the university, Brian Connolly, confirmed that Mr. Obama spent two years at Columbia College and graduated in 1983 with a major in political science. He did not receive honors, Mr. Connolly said, though specific information on his grades is sealed. A program from the 1983 graduation ceremony lists him as a graduate.

More is known about Mr. McCain's experience at the United States Naval Academy, where he was a self-described troublemaker and graduated in the bottom 1% of his class. The McCain campaign has declined to release his transcript, saying that his performance at the academy can only be viewed in the context of his larger military career."



Barack Obama - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama)

"Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988 and at the end of his first year was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review based on his grades and a writing competition. In his second year he was elected president of the Law Review, a full-time volunteer position functioning as editor-in-chief and supervising the law review's staff of 80 editors. Obama's election in February 1990 as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review was widely reported and followed by several long, detailed profiles. He graduated with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna laude from Harvard in 1991 and returned to Chicago where he had worked as a summer associate at the law firms of Sidley & Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990."


Obama graduated magna cumme laude in 1991 from Harvard Law School. That's an honor that traditionally meant that he graduated within the top one percent of his class, although may had been in the range of a top five percent because of the newer tiers. There's actually one higher, I think it's summa cumme laude. In other words Obama graduated with at least a 3.5 GPA from Harvard, probably higher, and that's excellent!